A look back on 2014 for UK packaging distributor Kite Packaging reveals a busy and impressive year for the employee-owned business, and plans for the coming year are already in preparation to build on its current rate of growth.
The company celebrated its 13th birthday this year, and like fresh-faced teenagers have delved into a number of creative projects to help expand its range for customers and achieve new innovative feats in packaging design.
The start of the year began following a successful final quarter in 2013 for Kite, who reported a growth of 13% in turnover to over £35 million – a huge achievement for a company operating in a volatile sector, in which growth is difficult to achieve. Kite’s ethos since it was founded is “customer satisfaction matters so much more when you own the business” and it is apparent that this philosophy has motivated Kite’s partners to be more innovative and more intuitive than the company’s competitors, Kite are always happy to welcome new accounts and partners to the business and provide them with full supply-chain solutions that not only protect their products better, but make the overall pick, pack and dispatch operation slicker, cleaner and more cost effective.
Kite announced the acquisition of two new buildings as part of its growth strategy during the latter part of 2013 – which included a £1.5 million investment in the company’s Northern operation to obtain a 30,000 ft2 site, accommodating a 25% growth in staff numbers. Around the same time a £3.5 million investment in Kite’s existing Midlands operation was well underway, and resulted in the acquisition of an additional 110,000 ft2 of space to more than double its footprint in the region.
The new space and predicted growth in sales allowed for a completely new area of the business for Kite; S3 (or Specialist Service and Solutions as it is formerly known) operates across the entire group and were responsible for rolling out some exceptional automated packing solutions this year, including three new Kite branded systems.
To add to the already successful Kite Mini Air System, launched in September 2013, a second air packaging solution, Kite Air Shock, was launched in February to Kite’s online customer base, as an environmentally-friendly, space-saving solution for fragile items. The consolidated range of inflatable packs was ideal for website customers, particularly those in the drinks market looking to pack fragile bottles and reduce spend on materials. Polystyrene was identified by Kite as a competing product for the Air Shock market, and found that the armoured air pouches provided not only a cheaper alternative to the traditional material, but reduced customers’ damage rate from as high as 10% down to zero.
Moving in swiftly after the Air Shock launch was the big reveal of the Kite Wrap & Hold System, which was seen for the first time by the public at this year’s Southern Manufacturing & Electronics Exhibition. As the Mini Air and Air Shock had serviced Kite’s online clientele well, the Wrap & Hold was bought in for the company’s Major Accounts Division – which provides bespoke designs, auditing and stock control services to high volume users (predominantly with a multi-site operation). The Wrap & Hold system has been designed to provide a fast, efficient and innovative alternative to a variety of void-filling and in-box solutions, by creating a void out of space rather than material. Kite’s idea was to use stretch film to secure products to patented cardboard wrap designs – these not only held the product in place without using adhesive but the intuitive designs also elevated the product so that it was suspended in the box, and therefore not affected by transit damage and impact.
The full S3 portfolio was demonstrated at a variety of shows this year – including Southern Manufacturing and Electronics, MACH 2014, Autumn Fair and of course PPMA 2014. The PPMA Show was an important exhibition for the company; however the announcement that they would be partnering with Audion Swissvac for the event made a serious statement about how far the business had come. Positioned on a 64 ft2 stand, with 3D screens to showcase supplier partner CMC Machinery’s Cartonwrap machine, Kite Packaging and Audion demonstrated a huge 21 systems to potential customers, covering all areas of the packing process including vacuum packing, sealing, bagging, shrink and void-fill.
The successful partnership continued onto the website offering shortly after the show, and customers can now choose from a variety of machines to suit their operation. Vacuum packing machines in particular are incredibly competitive in terms of pricing and are available with a choice of vacuum pouches in a variety of sizes. The machinery range has seen a facelift in terms of content as well, with Kite’s web team working hard on accessible content, videos and images – a noticeable USP of the Kite brand.
The range has also tied in with the launch of Enviropad – with the company retaining its focus on speed and cost-effectiveness, the new paper machine is a revelation for fulfilment operations and produces paper void-fill padding at double the speed of competing systems. Like many of Kite’s products the Enviropad has its own environmental credentials, using ethically-sourced paper with no outer packaging to save waste.
So what’s next for the dynamic company? 2015 is set to be another big year for the Major Accounts business, with the recent acquisition of a brand new two acre site in Swindon. Set to officially open in February 2015, once completed the building will have enough warehouse storage to accommodate 5,000 pallets of packaging.
The website continues to do exceptionally well in a highly competitive space, and as well as introducing new products the team plan to improve usability even more with new tools and guides to help all kinds of packaging buyers. Kite Online will report record turnover figures this year, and have set ambitious targets for the year ahead to become the biggest online retailer of stock packaging products.
Kite Packaging has been flying high for 13 years now; don’t expect it to let up anytime soon.
Phone: 02476 420065
Email: sales@kitepackaging.co.uk
Twitter: @kitepackaging
Facebook: kitepackaging
LinkedIn: kite-packaging
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